WARSAW DECLARATION

We, the participants of the International Congress on Children’s Rights convening in year 2012 in Warsaw as well as those for whom the child’s welfare and protection of child’s fundamental rights are the most precious values – during the year dedicated to the life and ideas of Janusz Korczak – educator, physician, pedagogue, protector of orphans and defender of children’s rights in society – call on all educators and tutors, parents, teachers, politicians, spiritual leaders, and all those responsible for the shape of social life, to carry out the legacy of Janusz Korczak.

The basis of Korczak’s philosophy is a wise love for the child, recognition of the child’s status as a subject, a child’s dignity, freedom, and responsibility, respect for the child’s right to respect to bonds of partnership in family, society and state. The child is a citizen whose voice must be heard in personal and family issues, as well as social and national ones.

We recall the words of Janusz Korczak – that children are people. The child is a human being, not simply someone with the makings of a future human being.

The educational principles of Janusz Korczak, which had laid the foundations for the Convention on the Rights of the Child, should live on in families, in educational, cultural and caretaking institutions, and in the activities of non-governmental organizations, religious institutions and public administration bodies.

Today, 23 years after the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted the Convention on the Rights of the Child we expect every state, to:

o fully implement the provisions of the Convention and ratify all Optional Protocols to the Convention on the Rights of the Child;

o establish the independent institution of the Ombudsman for Children in every country;

o establish laws and create conditions in which children’s rights will be fully respected.

In the name of peace and respect for fundamental human rights, and having faith in the dignity and value of the human being, striving to provide everyone with an atmosphere of happiness, love and understanding, we call on both government and non-governmental organizations, as well as every adult, to undertake all actions that guarantee every child a world free from violence, humiliation, poverty, injustice, discrimination and neglect, thus guaranteeing a better future for all generations.